Breathe
by CaseyMarieCarter
Summary: I sit next to him, pulling him into a warm embrace. I could feel his tears hit my jacket, soaking my shoulder, but I didn't mind. All he needed now was a friend, and I didn't mind being there for him. "Breathe. Just breathe." I tell him.


"Annabeth! Are you awake?" I hear Percy's voice ring through my head. I was too tired to notice the alarm in his voice.

"No. I'm just out shopping for groceries right now." I remark sarcastically, rubbing wearily at my eyes. I lean over my bed and pick up the digital clock on my nightstand. It's red, blinking numbers taunt me aimlessly.

"It's two A.M. Percy. What's so important that you had to call me this late?" I ask snippily.

He didn't even humor me like he usually did, and I took note of this huge red flag.

"My mom's in the hospital." I could hear his voice crack at the end as he tried to make it sound less bad as it really was.

I jerk up from my bed as I toss aside my covers. "What? What happened?" My heart raced. _Had something happened to Sally? _

"I don't know! She…She just fainted! I was over for dinner, and she started to take out the silverware, before…before she collapsed!" He gushed, trying his best to stem out the flow of tears.

"I'll be right over. Don't worry. We'll figure this out." I tell him, ending the call. I hop out of my bed, tie my unruly and curly blonde hair into a messy bun and tossed on my shoes.

I grab my keys off the hook and grab my jacket from the coat hook. I step out of my apartment and into cold and unforgiving New York. A cold wind rips past me, and I yank my jacket tighter. I hop down the icy steps and into my toasty warm car. I start it with a turn and quickly pull out of my apartment driveway.

Within a few minutes, due to great traffic, I was already at the hospital, heading over to Sally's ward.

I walk over to the receptionist at the counter. "Hi. Can you tell me where room 234 is at?"

The nurse smiles and points to the end of the hall. I thank and quickly make my way to the ward. I pass by many corridors, each confusingly alike, before I stop in front of the similar green door I've seen countless times. It brought back horrible memories. And my mind couldn't help but just flash back to her lifeless eyes and pale skin. I quick shake myself out of it, telling myself that Percy needed me to be here. For him and Sally.

I knock onto the door softly before stepping in. I look around the room, noticing that many beautiful bouquets adorned this room. A bedridden Sally lies comatose on a white, sterilized hospital bed. It was weird to see her like that. She was usually chipper, livelier, with a cheerful laugh that made everything seem like it was OK. She was like a mother to me, since my mom died when I was seven.

I walk over to Percy, who has fallen asleep by her bedside, his hands clutching on hers.

"Hey." I gently wake him up, poking him in the shoulder. He stirs for a moment, before waking up. He looks up at me wearily, his turquoise eyes bloodshot. His eyes light up for a fraction of a second as he sees me.

"Annabeth! I'm so glad you're here." He sighs, getting up from his chair and gently placing Sally's hand onto the bed. He leans over and places a tender kiss to her forehead before leading me out of the room. He carefully slips the door shut, gesturing his hand down the hall. He pauses for a moment, examining my outfit.

"Um…nice pajamas?" He snickers, humored.

I roll my eyes. "Hey. You called me at two A.M. don't expect me to wear a dress."

He clears his throat, trying to casually rid the subject away.

"Do you want to head over to the cafeteria? My treat," He offers. "I feel really bad for calling you over so early."

"Don't feel bad. It was right for you to call me in, Sally's practically family." I interject.

He smiles as we walk over to the cafeteria.

"So, what did the doctor say?" I ask warily.

He sighs grimly. "They haven't finished all the tests yet, but the doctor's are hoping for the best, just fatigue taking over her. But they're not really certain if that's the issue."

"Don't worry. She'll get through. We'll all get through." I comfort him. He laughs dryly, grabbing two empty trays from a shelf. "I really hope so Annabeth, I really do."

A part of me wanted to comfort him more, tell him that it's all going to be OK, but I couldn't tell him something that wasn't true. I wasn't sure if Sally would be all right. All I could do is comfort him as best as I could and hope for the best.

"Go grab us some seats, I'll order us some food."

"Are you sure?"

I nod. He slides out his wallet and hands me a few bills, but I slap his hand away. "No. Keep it. My treat."

He shakes his head defiantly, grabbing onto my hand and pressing the money in my hands. I felt my hands tingle slightly at his touch, but I brush it away. I couldn't think like that, while Sally was in the hospital. Besides, he already has a girlfriend. And it isn't me.

He looks to me sternly for a moment, before venturing out of the line, looking for a table. The line progressed faster than I could've imagined. Within a minute, I was at the counter, ordering a plate of lasagna and a cup of hot coffee. I pay the waiter and grab my order. I crane my head, scanning the crowd, taking note to look for Percy's messy black hair. I spot him over at the far left side of the cafeteria and weave deftly through the crowd.

I set the tray down, and frown at what I see. Percy sits quietly in his seat, cradling his head in his hands. It hurt seeing him like that. Discouraged, stripped of his usual bright turquoise eyes and casual cheeky grin.

I sit next to him, pulling him into a warm embrace. I could feel his tears hit my jacket, soaking my shoulder, but I didn't mind. All he needed now was a friend, and I didn't mind being there for him.

"Breathe. Just breathe." I tell him.

We just stayed there, in our silent embrace, just holding each other. I wanted to hold him for another moment, but as if reacting on instinct, I pulled away from him. He wipes away the tears from his already bloodshot eyes and starts to dig into the lasagna.

"I know it's not blue, but I'm sure you'd make an exception for that." I tease, trying to lighten the mood. It must've worked, because for a moment, he shot me his usual cheeky grin, before it was replaced by a grim frown again.

"Percy! Is your mom OK?" Jenna, Percy's girlfriend walks over to our table, worry written all across her face.

He looks up for a moment, as if he wasn't expecting her to be here. "Yeah. Her blood is being tested right now."

"Oh. Good." She sighs with relief, plopping down in the chair next to him. "Hey, Annabeth." She greets me. I look up and smile at her, before taking a sip out of my coffee. It's bitter and tastes like dirt, but it's better than engaging an awkward conversation with her.

Percy had started dating her about six months ago, after a year I moved out to New York. He met her at a fundraiser for Marine Life Awareness. Percy's obsessed with Marine life just as much as I'm obsessed with architecture.

"What are you doing here anyway? I thought you were supposed to be at a meeting." Percy asks her, sarcasm coated deep in his voice.

Jenna rolls her eyes. "Come on Percy. Get over it and grow up."

"Get over it? Why should I get over the fact _that my girlfriend_ cheated-" Percy freezes for a moment, looking over at me. He shoots me a look that I've gotten used to looking at. It means, I've got to handle this alone. I've seen it countless times, when he got into fights with Jenna over the silliest things. But they'd usually make up within a few hours or so.

_I wonder what happened now? He said she had 'cheated'. I_ thought quietly to myself as I excuse myself and walk out of the cafeteria, heading for Sally's room. I pry open the door and shut it quietly, taking a seat in front of her bed. I grab onto her hand gently.

"Hey, Sally. I know you're not awake, but I'm pretty sure that you can hear me," I smile, brushing away stray locks of her hair from her sharp face. I could feel my heart ache as I looked at her. I couldn't stand the sight to see one of the people I love the most in comatose state.

"Please wake up." I beg her quietly, hearing the door open behind me. I crane my head back and see Percy. He fumes at where he stands, and if it was possible, I could've seen the puffs of smoke come out of his ears.

"If you keep standing there, heated, you'll burn a hole through the floor." I tell him jokingly. He sighs, walking over to the bed.

A long, uncomfortable silence passes us, nothing but the consistent whine of the heart monitor.

"What happened?" I ask, deciding to cut through the silence.

"What?" He asks me, dazed.

"You and Jenna. What happened?"

"Nothing." He tells me flatly.

I cock an eyebrow, contemplating whether I should pry more, or just let it go. Deciding against my better judgment, I decided to leave the situation alone. Percy will tell me when he's ready. I know he will.

A soft knock on the door quickly changes the subject. A tall doctor in blue scrubs steps in, holding a clipboard. He looks grimly at Percy, heading over to him reluctantly.

"I'm sorry to inform you this, but, your mom was diagnosed with cancer, tuberculosis to be exact, about a year ago." The doctor tells him with a frown.

Percy's eyes widened with panic. "No! That's not possible! My mom's strong as ox! You must have the wrong documents."

The doctor shakes his head. "I'm sorry. It's not. Your probably has 24 hours or 48 tops. I'm terribly sorry." He nods in assent to me, stepping out of the hospital. Percy stands idle for a moment, expressionless as a plain block of wood, before he collapses back into a chair.

He buries his face into his hands, and I could see his body tense up with agony. I wanted to comfort him, tell him that'll we'll all get through this, but I can't. Because I know that Percy will never be the same after Sally's dead. He will never be that same boy I love.

So, all I could do was stand stiff, my eyes shifting away from Percy's figure. I look down sadly at Sally, a lone tear slipping down my cheek. I lean down and take Sally's hand firmly into my hand. I grip tightly onto her soft hand, trying to grasp longer onto the fantasy rather than the reality.

"Wake up." I whisper to her. I wanted her to wake up so badly, but every thing I try will be futile. I know that, but I also knew that holding onto hope was better than just giving up.

As I let go Sally's hand to comfort Percy, I hear the rate of her heart speeding up. I look over and see that Sally's eyes are slowly fluttering open. I rush over to her, grabbing onto her hand.

"Sally!" I call out to her. Percy's head whips over to me, his eyes bright with hope. He leaps out of his seat as he sees Sally's eyes slowly open.

"P-Percy…" She calls out to him dryly.

"Yeah, mom?" He asks her through a cracked voice.

She gestures him to come closer, and she whispers something in his ear. I couldn't hear exactly what she had said, but it was enough to scare Percy. He shakes his head unbelieving for a moment, before looking at me, shocked. I stare at him with confusion. He looks absolutely pissed at me. He walks out, fumed.

I start to go after him, curious why he was angry, but Sally's grabs onto my arm. She shakes her head and whispers these five wise words to me. "He needs to be alone."

I nod obediently, enveloping her into a hug. "Thank God you're all right." I say with relief.

She laughs her typical laugh.

"Why didn't you tell us that you had tuberculosis?" I question her. She rolls her eyes and waves her hand dismissively. "I didn't want to worry you kids. Besides, it's not a huge deal."

"It is a huge deal Sally. We could've helped. I could've taken you to therapy, or at least help pay for it."

"There's no need for all of that Annabeth. I've lived my life, now it's time for you and Percy to live yours."

"Huh?" I cock an eyebrow with confusion. "He doesn't love me that way. He loves me like a sister." I scoff, dismissing the subject.

"How do you know? Did he tell you that?" Sally asks.

"Well…no. But-" I start to explain, but she interrupts me.

"Go get him. I'm pretty sure he feels the same way." She tells me. I start to argue, but she shoos me off. "Don't make me get up!" She threatens.

I hold up my hands defensively, prodding her to lie back down. "No. Don't. You'll just strain yourself….I'll go. For your sake." I tell her, stepping out of the room.

"It's for your own good dear." Sally whispers to herself.

I rush down the hall, looking for Percy, and spot him hanging near the fountain, where a school of fish are swimming. He tosses them small crumbs of bread.

"Hey." I warily approach him. He looks up, spots me, and then turns back to feeding the fish.

I stand next to him, watching him delicately feed the fish.

"Why didn't you tell me you loved me?" He asks me bluntly.

"I still do." I tell him quietly.

He spins around, throwing away the remaining crumbs from his palm to the fish. "Then why didn't you speak up?"  
"It's not as easy as you say it is OK? You're dating Jenna, and I can't exactly say, 'I love you', when you love someone else, can I?" I say defensively.

"But I don't love Jenna! I love you dummy!"

My eyes widen with shock. "Then why didn't _you _say something?"

"Well…because..because…" He stutters sheepishly.

"Exactly," I point a finger at him. "How can you judge me when you didn't speak up as well?"

"Because you were with Jon! I thought you two were dating?" He yells.

"What? Jon? Are you frikkin' kidding me right now? He's a co-worker from work!" I'm starting to yell now, attracting attention of the nurses and the patients.

"How was I supposed to know? Right when I show up to your house, motivated to tell you that I love you, you show up with him!"

"We were out discussing the latest project we had closed! He just decided to walk me home because he was on his way to pick up some movies for him and _his girlfriend!"_

"Oh." Percy's voice went quiet.

"Yeah," I'm on the verge of breaking down to tears. All those walls I had built to protect myself went back down again. All because of him. I force the tears back. "When I saw you with Jenna, I knew right there and then, you loved as a sister."

"I was talking to Jenna because I thought _you_ loved me as a brother!" He argues defensively.

"Well. You're wrong then. _I love you more than a brother. I'm in love with you._" I tell him. He looks to me for a moment, dumbfounded. I shake my head, turn around, and head back for Sally's room.

As I pry open her door, I hear the dull whine of the heart machine as her heart rate flattens.

"Sally!" I rush over, pressing the assist button repeatedly, that I might've just broken the button completely. About a few moments, later, a nurse rushes, with a doctor trailing in from behind her.

"Stand back Miss." The nurse pushes me back as the doctor performs the required tests. Another nurse pulls me out of the room.

"Let go of me!" I struggle against her grasp. I manage to wrestle free and as I'm rushing to the door, another nurse stops me. This time it's a man, tall and standing well over me about a head or two.

I resisted the urge to fight back, but I knew if I did, my attempts would be absolutely futile.

"What happened?" Percy rounds the corner, his eyes filled with alarm.

"I'm sorry." I tell him grimly.

As Percy rushes forward, his hand on the door, the doctor steps through. He face is dark and grim, as he readjusts the stethoscope around his neck.

Percy and I look to him expectantly, both hoping for the better. But, he just shakes his head. He tries to offer his condolences but Percy's already inside, cradling Sally's dead corpse in his arms. He sobs on her hair.

"Please don't leave me. Please don't." He begs her.

I walk over to him, unsure of what I should do. But every part of my body screamed, _'Comfort him!'_ So, I do. I place my hand decisively on his shoulder and pull him back.

"Percy. Let her go. Just let her go and breathe."

**Three days later…**

I open my apartment door, rubbing my bloodshot eyes raw. I slide my feet out of my boots and place them neatly aside on the shoe rack. With a heavy sigh, I head over to my fridge, grab a pint of rocky road ice cream. I grab a clean spoon from my drawer and head over to the living room, where I plop tiredly onto the couch and turn on the T.V.

"Why'd you have to leave us so early Sally?" I sigh to myself, thinking back to the speech I had written down for Sally's funeral. I couldn't contain the flow of tears that dripped out of my eyes as I spoke about her. She was a sensational woman, who'd always have a place in my heart. Always.

As I'm about to dig into my rocky road, the front door rings. Irritated and weary, I head over to the door, scooping up as spoon of rocky road and shoving it in my mouth as I yank open the door. But who I see at the door shocks me the most.

"Percy?" I ask with confusion, my voice muffled, full of ice cream. I swallow down the chunk of ice cream and feel the cool sensation slide down my throat.

"What are you doing here?" I ask him, wiping away the cream off my mouth with the sleeve of my shirt.

"I came here to start over."

I cock an eyebrow with bewilderment. "Huh?"

"I came here to start over with you. Start a new chapter of my life with you in it."

"Look, Percy…I think it's the best if we-" I start to explain to him, but he cuts me off.

"Just shut up." He flashes me his cheeky grin and pulls me into a warm embrace, making me drop the pint of ice cream and my spoon. My spoon clinks off the pavement as the pint falls to the floor with a thud, it's contents spilling out.

He places a kiss onto my lips and it's slightly overwhelming. It rids me of my breath, but I didn't mind. I wrap my arms around his waist as he wraps his around mine. He pulls away from me with a smile. I look up at him, breathless and stunned.

"Breathe. Just breathe." He smiles at me.

I laugh as I tiptoe and plant a soft kiss onto his lips. And when he kisses me back, there's this feeling that I can't really describe. A mix of tenderness, and affection, and it's something new to explore. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he didn't change. Usually, I hated being wrong, but I didn't mind being wrong about this.

**Two years later…**

"Hurry up Percy! We're going to be late!" I rush him, stuffing the last of our suitcases into the trunk of our car.

"I'm coming!" He yells, taking one last look at our newly bought abode. He picks up a photo of Sally, me, and him. He looks at it with a smile, before putting back into its place; right next to our newly taken wedding photos and family photos.

"How can you be late to your own honeymoon?" I cock an eyebrow jokingly, wagging a finger at him.

He looks at me and grins. "Because I have a completely awesome wife that willing to wait?"

"Ha! In your dreams." I tease him.

"Yeah. I'm already in my dreams." He jokes, pulling me into a tender embrace. I roll my eyes playfully at him. "You are so corny."

"Isn't that why you love me?" He asks cheekily.

"Hmm…it could be part of the reason," I place a quick kiss onto his cheek, pulling away from him. "Now hurry! We're late."

He laughs and picks me up in his strong arms, carrying us to the beach near our home.

"What are you doing? We're going to miss our flight!" I laugh, striking him across the chest.

"I'm sure we can catch a later flight." He grins, planting a tender, long kiss onto my lips.

**A/N: Wow! This is exceptionally long! I wasn't expecting it to extend to such long lengths! So….I'm back! No, I'm not back from the dead, I'M BACK FROM STUDIES! I'm still studying, not doubt about it, but I decided that I had a free hour on my hands, why not write? Also, I READ SON OF NEPTUNES! **** (sighs) I absolutely cannot wait for the Mark of Athena, dear God, I hope it comes sooner. I was ecstatic when Percy gained back his memory! :D OK, enough of my rant, hope you enjoyed the short story, and write a review of your opinion, would love to hear it. P.S, the photo isn't mine. **


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